Japan Display Showcases 8K, 120Hz Screen

December 16, 2015September 5, 2016by Dan Hamilton

Japan Display – a joint venture between electronic makers Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi – has revealed a 17.3-inch screen with an IPS panel, an enormous 8K (7680 x 4320) resolution and a speedy response rate of 120Hz. The most astounding fact is that the display gives you a pixel density of 510 pixels per inch (PPI). If you do the math then that’s over 33 million pixels being shown all at once. Compare this with the 127 PPI that a 1080p resolution would offer at that size and you’re looking at a beautiful improvement. Nowadays most 24-inch monitors are equipped with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and offer a 92 PPI while most 27 inch monitors offer 2560 x 1440 resolution giving us a 109 PPI. Throwing in an 8K resolution at those sizes gives 367 PPI and 326 PPI respectively. All this translates to a gorgeous viewing experience.

While its current size may be a bit disappointing, it offers a glimpse of what we can realistically look forward to in the future. Some issues will need to be worked out, however. The up and coming DisplayPort 1.3 will be able to pump out information for 4K and 5K resolutions just fine, but an 8K resolution will remain out of reach. In anticipation the Video Electronics Standards Association, the organization behind DisplayPort, has said that it intends to release DisplayPort 1.4a afterwards with the capability of running 8K displays. Meanwhile, Intel has also thrown its hat into the ring with its Thunderbolt 3 interface which will be able to support 8K displays. Another problem is that in order to fully take advantage of playing modern games at 120Hz with an 8K you’ll need a graphics card that currently simply does not exist But if we’ve learned anything in the past it’s that where there’s a will there’s a way. We’re confident that AMD and NVIDIA will be able to deliver.